Hero Academy: Why Are You Still Reading This and NOT Playing?

If you’ve been living under a rock (or don’t have an iOS device) you’ve probably never heard of Hero Academy. Well, you’re in luck! I just spent the better part of my weekend tinkering and countering the newest team, in the game: the Team Fortress goons.

Let’s start with the basics: the initial game is free on any iOS device and comes with The Council (them medieval lookin’ peeps above). If you ask regular players, they’ll tell you that they’re pretty frelling broken. They are an overall great team with good synergies, and an easy couple of tactics and combos that can exploited to maximum efficiency in the hands of an experienced player.

All you really need to know about the game to like it is: If you loved Final Fantasy Tactics, you will love the absolute shit out of this game. I know I do. I started playing back during the Super Bowl and it is consistently by go-to app whenever I need a quick tussle. The asynchronous turn-based nature of the game makes it easy to pick up and put down.

STICKS AND STONES… AND KATANAS?

The game revolves around a “deck”. This deck comes with all of your units, gear, spells, and items. It is shuffled and the beginning of the game and you slowly draw from it as you use up your “cards”. The tray at the bottom of your screen is your “hand”. Each turn you may use up your 5 Action Points (AP) in order to give commands to your units, or play a “card” from your hand. You may also exchange a card in your hand from a random card from the deck for an AP per swap.

Winning the match can be done in two ways: annihilating your opponent’s units or destroying their crystals. It sounds easier than it actually is sometimes…

Each unit comes with their own stats (HP, Damage, Damage Type, Resistances, Range, Movement, and Special Attributes). I will not go into this more in depth, you guys can figure that part out. All units come in 5 flavors: Fighter (tank), Shooter (Physical Dmg), Mage (Magical Dmg), Support (Buffs and Debuffs), and your Super Unit (Ridiculously powerful units).

THE LITTLE STEAM ENGINE THAT COULD

Now this past weekend, HA has finally crossed over into the PC realm by having in available via Steam. It’s not free ($4.99 for the basic model), but the plus is that it is completely ad free (the iOS version is ad supported until you make a purchase), and you get Team Fortress as well and The Council (will all their avatar packs too, at $2.99 cost per pack normally). Now any other teams do cost you an additional couple bucks, but once bought, they cross over both the PC and iOS versions.

Currently there are 5 teams: The Council, Team Fortress, the Dark Elves, the Dwarves, and The Tribe (orcs). Each have very different playstyles and unique abilities. Easy to learn, hard to master.

There is really nothing else I can tell you about this game other than this, if you’re a newbie be prepared to get ROFL-stomped. 8 months into the game, and a lot of the experienced players can destroy your face fairly easily by using their teams’ abilities creatively. Do not be discouraged. Ask questions, there is a chat interface for a reason. Most people I have seen are fairly polite and nobody I have played has been a blatant ass… yet.

If you feel like you need pointers or want to try it out in a stress-free environment, my Player Name is, of course, 5yphon. Send me a challenge. I won’t bite. Unless you want me to. See you there!

The Masters

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